The 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War is dedicated to this edition of a book that has not lost its formidable relevance today. “August the Fourteenth” is a grandiose beginning, the first of four Knots of one of the most important books of the twentieth century, the epic novel of the great Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn “The Red Wheel”. Russia enters the World War with a heavy burden. Behind us are half a century of confrontation between government and society, the bloody paroxysms of the revolution of 1905-1906, the vacillations and mistakes of the last Russian Emperor Nicholas II, the courageous attempt of Prime Minister Stolypin to stop the revolution and carry out urgently needed reforms, his tragic death... With the beginning of an unnecessary war, the hope for the necessary , the only saving peace for the country. A terrible harbinger of future troubles is the disaster that overtook the army of General Samsonov in East Prussia. Sometimes the reader, admiring the courage, intelligence, determination, and human dignity of the best Russian people—Solzhenitsyn’s favorite heroes—seems that all is not lost. But no - the Red Wheel has already rolled across Russia. His unstoppable movement had already been revealed to the antagonists - the “Stolypinist” Colonel Vorotyntsev and the future dictator Lenin. September 1911 June 1907 July 1906 October 1905 January 1905 Autumn 1904 Summer 1903 19011899